Portland Grand Prix Recap: Sato Steals a Win while Dixon Averts Disaster

Nick Smiley
Sep 4, 2018 · 4 min read
Sato’s #30 Mi-Jack/Panasonic Honda that was driven during Sunday’s Portland Grand Prix

Takuma Sato hasn’t exactly been the man to beat this IndyCar season, but on Sunday he showed up and showed out at the Portland Grand Prix, causing an unexpected veer off of the map from what had been a two-man race between Scott Dixon and Alexander Rossi for the IndyCar championship. Neither of the top two current points leaders found themselves in contention at race’s end to win what would have been their fourth race this season — a fact that is truly a far cry from the neck-and-neck nature of the competition between the two that had characterized the past several races — and Takuma Sato managed to outfox Ryan Hunter-Reay, one of his only true challengers on the day, to land his third IndyCar win. But Sato laying claim to victory at the 2018 Portland Grand Prix was only the final dramatic event in a day chock-full of them. In this recap, we’ll look at a few of the major events that shaped the outcome of the race and analyze what the results mean for the standings, which can only be affected one last time at the Grand Prix of Sonoma before a champion is crowned.

Sato steers clear of collision, holds off Hunter-Reay to win first race since 2017

Takuma Sato didn’t perform too many remarkable feats of motorsport performance on Sunday — he merely drove smart and won at the end. He was fortunate enough to be safely removed from the site of the crash at Turn 3 on lap 1, a fact that both bolstered his own position and ensured that the red-hot Scott Dixon would be significantly removed from the front of the pack. Though Alexander Rossi — whose ill-fated finish will be more deeply explored below — led for a race-high 32 laps, by lap 85 it had come down to Hunter-Reay and Sato, as previous leader Max Chilton made his final stop there and allowed them to overtake him. Sato was a second ahead of Hunter-Reay at this point, and Hunter-Reay did manage to close the gap separating them by a half-second, but Sato surrendered no ground during the final three-lap span and sinished 0.6084 seconds ahead of Hunter-Reay. This was Sato’s third win of his IndyCar career and first since his victory at the 2017 Indianapolis 500.

Dixon clings to points lead, miraculously escapes early crash, avoiding further Rossi encroachment

Coming into this race, Scott Dixon had more or less a single goal — do not let Alexander Rossi finish ahead of you (and, if possible, ensure he finishes at least securely behind you). He accomplished these objects laudibly, if stressfully; on just the first lap of the race a five-car pileup erupted that immediately immobilized the vehicles of Zach Veach and James Hinchcliffe (whose involvement in the crash made it the second time in three races that his car collided with another’s on the first lap) and quickly thereafter caused Ed Jones to crash and Marco Andretti’s vehicle to be thrown over top of Jones’ and Hinchcliffe’s cars.

Dixon became ensnared in this pileup and according to him was almost instantaneously blinded by huge amounts of dust that had been kicked up in the chaos. However, his vehicle inexplicably suffered no damage, and after a checkup at the Ganassi pit was cleared to continue racing. From there, to counteract the ground he’d lost in the commotion of the crash, he employed a two-stop strategy for the rest of the way, managing to pull as far ahead as fifth by the time he crossed the finish line. It was, despite a stupendously lamentable start to a race of such great importance given his circumstances, a show of genuine mettle on the part of the racers looking to capture his fifth IndyCar championship.

Rossi, still formidable in leading for 32 laps, stung by teammate Veach’s second mishap

It had already been a tough day for Zach Veach, who’d been one of the initial participants in the multi-car collision during the third turn of lap 1, when on lap 56 he spun off the track and came to a stop for the second time on the day. This forced Andretti Autosport teammate Alexander Rossi, who’d been slicing out the beginnings of a strong lead at the time, to slow for Veach’s caution flags. This put him realistically out of any contention for a top finish, and by the time he re-entered the race he did so in 17th place, sandwiched between Penske team driver and fourth-place points-scorer Josef Newgarden and Jordan King.

Rossi was able to claw all the way up nine spots to snatch an eighth-place finish on the day, but in so doing he ceded marginal ground back to Dixon, whose lead swelled slightly from 26 points before the race to 29 after it. Catching Dixon was always going to be an uphill battle for Rossi, but by finishing three spots behind Dixon at Portland he’ll now need to unambiguously upstage Dixon in the season finale at Sonoma and should have his sights on one finish and one finish only: first, as the winner of the Grand Prix of Sonoma will net 100 points — more than enough to sweep climactically ahead of Dixon granted that Dixon finishes at least two spots behind him.

Connect.Racing is a community of passionate IndyCar fans organizing a crowdfunded entry into the 2020 Indianapolis 500. If you’re interested in helping out or learning more, follow us on Twitter (@ConnectRacing2), subscribe to our weekly newsletter on our website, or send us an email at hello@connect.racing.

Connect.Racing

We are crowdfunding an IndyCar into the 2020 Indy500! We'll be posting community updates, relevant IndyCar news, and other content on this publication

Nick Smiley

Written by

Connect.Racing

We are crowdfunding an IndyCar into the 2020 Indy500! We'll be posting community updates, relevant IndyCar news, and other content on this publication

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